Things are not always as they are reported.

Greetings All,

Regrettably, this past Monday information was publicly provided to the Board of Selectmen and the Town Administrator that was neither complete, nor fully representative of an issue that has created concern within the community as it relates to the use of the Burgess Elementary School for local elections.

During the meeting, information was presented that indicated the Burgess School Committee had voted to “no longer allow use of the elementary school for elections”. It was further indicated that the School Committee had based this decision upon safety and security issues that have existed and have been raised for years. In response to such, I shared my displeasure with residents losing access to a $21 million investment, of which said residents shoulder the tax burden for, in that I fully recognize the ability to address security issues quite adequately via a number of appropriate measures.

The following day, Kate Alexander – Chairman of the Burgess School Committee - and I spoke about this issue and it became very clear that the information presented to the Board of Selectmen and by extension the residents of this community, was incomplete and did not fully represent the discussion that took place surrounding the Burgess School Committee vote.  The fact is that the vote taken by the school committee was for the 2011/2012 school year and it involved a number of concerns, which are all valid and completely supportable.


Due to ongoing construction, the lack of controllable access during construction, traffic congestion, and the absolute lack of parking, the Burgess School Committee is extremely concerned with the potential for vehicle conflict between other vehicles, pedestrians, and students. In addition, legitimate concerns exist in terms of the difficulty faced when navigating vehicles, buses, and construction equipment in an area that places students in a potentially unsafe and vulnerable situation. Complimenting these challenges are the current limited means to adequately employ access control measures in the midst of the aforementioned items, all of which lead to a decision to restrict the use of the building by not hosting elections for the 2011/2012 school period. This, in my humble view, is a substantive number of concerns/challenges, all of which support holding our elections elsewhere, while construction is ongoing. Thus, I support the Burgess School Committee’s decision as it relates to the period represented by their vote.

To be clear, members of the Burgess School Committee were very concerned about restricting use in terms of the upcoming elections as they recognize the community’s investment in the new school. To that end, they specifically voted a 1-year policy and nothing more. Once construction has been completed, there will be a collaborative effort between the Burgess School Committee and the Board of Selectmen to address any outstanding safety/security concerns that may accompany the numbers of individuals on-site during elections.

It is unfortunate that the information conveyed to the Board/public Monday evening was not more fully representative of what transpired at the Burgess School Committee meeting. To that end, I personally apologize to all residents for any anxiety that has been unnecessarily created due to any failure by elected officials to fully vet the information publicly provided to us that evening. We as representatives of the people, perform a disservice when we fail to fully disclose – mistakenly or otherwise - all information associated with an issue we raise. In this instance there clearly has been a failure and again, as one individual member, I offer my apologies.

Ms. Alexander will be joining us briefly on Monday evening to provide a first-hand accounting of the discussion and valid concerns the Burgess School Committee has in terms of the 2011/2012 school year; I encourage you to watch the live or taped rebroadcast so that you can be more fully and accurately informed.